GainesvilleMoms.com

Obama's Proposed Tax Cuts

I hope we do get some "relief." Why should the banks with their marble floors and granite counter tops get a billion dollar bail-out when many American families whose money they're "holding" (spending on lawn maintainance) can't even buy groceries???

Would you go to a "plain jane" bank that spends less money on appearances and rent or do they need this expensive look to get business?

I do all of my banking online and have not stepped foot in a bank since I worked in one back in 1993.

I, like Lew, do all my banking online. I do prefer a larger bank though in case I'm out of state and need to go to my bank. I'm more about what the bank has to offer than appearance. As long as I can bank online and don't get charged (for anything) I'm happy.

quote:

Originally posted by Mary Reichardt:

Would you go to a "plain jane" bank that spends less money on appearances and rent or do they need this expensive look to get business?

I'll do you one better. I bank with ING online. Not exclusively since I still use my credit union account primarily, but should the need arise, I would definately move everything over to ING. They have interest bearing checking and a really good savings rate. They also do mortgages and investments! It's really one stop shopping. And no buildings, checks, or statements. ( well I guess there's a building somewhere to house the servers and such)

Wow, I do hope we get some type of relief. You are right why do we bail out everyone else.

I guess I am riding the fence here. We did have all of our accounts with a local credit union which I did like that we could go into the offices and have a face to face about things like the mortgage and other long-term loans, BUT....without going into great detail, we did hit a bad patch thanks in large part to the practice of credit card companies reviewing your open accounts and deciding to adjust your APR, your credit limits, etc. When this happened, we got behind by 45 days on my car payment, however I did call the CU and let them know what was going on and that the payments would be caught up ASAP, which they claimed was fine. Then, one day after I wrote out checks (an odd prcatice for me, I love online bill pay) and was about to mail them, the ones that would have us back up to current, I looked at my online statement/daily account page and the CU had taken my past due payment out of our checking account WITHOUT notifying us. I agree, we owed them the money so I was not mad about that, but it would have been nice for a notice of this transaction! I called and asked why this happened and they threw out the term "cross collateralization" meaning basically they hold the loan that was past due, they hold the account that had the funds, so they just helped themselves to the payment.

Soooo, now they hold the loan on my van and the mortgage, but we no longer have checking and savings accounts that are 'active' - just there on paper. I was also told by the mortgage department that all of the "bailout" funds that were doled out went to publicly traded banks and not to credit unions so they would not be offering us any help with our mortgage, even tho we are either upside down or close to it - we can't afford to have an appraisal done so I am basing this on the other homes in the area whose owners have had them done and most of which are now sitting empty, waiting for come what may.

All that said, we always had one small account with Bank of America and now we have two more and they do offer the online banking so the only time I go to the bank itself is to make a deposit since my job didn't offer direct deposit. (yes, so far I still have a job, but now cut even further back on work and pay) I also like to do bill pay directly from the site of the creditor or company so there is no delay in the processing and I have a confirmation number from their system.

I don't choose a bank because of its pretty facade, rather its ease of use. Like having branches all over the place so I can avoid ATM fees, and if I need to go in and see someone, there are offices in a lot of places like with Bank of America. In fact, if I go into any type of business and it is over the top with "extras" I instantly wonder how they do that and what it will cost me.

That's stinks Michelle! For that very reason, we never opened an account at the CU our car loan was at.

Wow Caryn I'm really interested. The only thing that scares me about that is the customer service. How is it if you really need to talk to someone?

Also, it makes me a little uneasy about jobs and machines and computers taking over the world but that's about it. haha

Honestly I don't know. I have had the account for 6 years and have never had a problem. Which is a good thing because the last time I had to call a banking institution (a credit card) the person answering said his name was Roger, but had the thickest Indian accent I have ever heard and I had to keep asking him to repeat.